Decommissioning delays: Why Eskom's power plants could kill nearly 100 000 people

With delayed decommissioning, Eskom's power plants would be responsible for a projected 92 000 deaths over their remaining lifetime, new research shows.

The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) on Tuesday published its latest report on the health impacts of delaying power plant decommissioning in South Africa. CREA is an independent research group founded in Helsinki, Finland.

CREA also earlier this year released a report indicating that the air pollution from Eskom's coal power plants could cause 79 500 people to die from 2025 until the dates they are due to be shut. This study assumes that the decommissioning schedule in Eskom's Emission Reduction Plan (ERP) of 2022 will be followed. The ERP introduced some delays to decommissioning - compared to the schedule in the Integrated Resources Plan of 2019.